Genomorph

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Awareness returned slowly, and the first thing she noticed was the strange weight on her chest. The second thing was the fact that she knew she was now female. The third was that she was restrained by straps securing her arms and legs. It had not been some weird dream; it was all real.

She could remember it all; at first it had progressed as Susan had said it would. There had been a feeling of euphoria; a natural seeming relaxation as the machine had begun its work. But then the changes had begun; changes she had felt and seen in the reflection that shone back at her in the crystal chamber. She opened her eyes and looked down at the two impossibly large mounds pushing the sheet up at her chest.

“Shit.”

The sound of her voice was startling, a soft, melodious soprano, and drew the attention of the two women standing nearby. Susan handed the chart she had been reading to the nurse standing next to her, and then turned towards the young woman on the bed, her face showing concern. She looked like she had not slept in days.

“Why am I strapped down?”

“We were afraid you might be…agitated when you awakened,” Susan explained. “We didn’t want you to injure yourself. You seem to be handling things well so I’ll release the restraints.”

“I don’t know about well but I’m handling things … I don’t really have a lot of choice do I?”

“How do you feel Brandi?” Susan asked as she and the nurse released the straps.

“Brandi?”

“Sorry, it’s what we’ve been calling you since … since the transformation,” Susan said. “You’ve been asleep for three days and … well it just didn’t seem right to call you Brandon anymore.”

“I suppose not,” Brandi admitted, and then her face clouded with anger. “Susan what the hell did you do to me! I trusted you and you … you ….”

Brandi’s voice trailed off, choked by the sobs that forced their way to the surface. She tried to fight the tears, tried not to cry but soon she was sobbing uncontrollably as Susan held her, encouraging her to let the emotions out.

“Brandi, please believe me, none of us had any idea the machine was capable of anything like this,” Susan said. “If I had known … I never .…”

“I believe you,” Brandi said, wiping her reddened eyes. Even as she said it she knew it was in fact true; she did believe Susan, not just because she trusted her but because she knew she was telling her the truth. It was not like an extrasensory phenomenon; rather it was as though she were hypersensitive to the world around her. As she concentrated on the sensation, a world of sounds and smells and feelings she had never experienced before washed over her.

She knew other things she realized too. She knew that the nurse still standing by the door was nervous and a bit frightened, despite her dispassionate appearance. She knew that the room was being monitored; though she could not see any evidence of cameras or microphones, she could feel their presence and knew where each was located. She knew that there were two guards outside the door.

“I’d like to see what I look like,” Brandi said quietly after Susan broke from their hug. Susan studied her for a moment then adjusted the bed so Brandi was in a sitting position. She pulled a hand mirror from the drawer of the night stand and passed it to Brandi.

The face that was reflected in the mirror was that of an incredibly beautiful young woman. She looked quite young, in her late teens or perhaps her early twenties. Her skin was a light golden tan and flawless, framed by a mane of pale, loose, golden blonde curls that billowed over her shoulders and down her back. She had high cheekbones with a natural blush and a beautifully sculpted, slightly upturned nose. Her lips were full and also had a slight upturn, giving her a natural, mischievous grin. The most striking thing about her face was a pair of big, round eyes with astonishingly deep, purple irises.

Brandi stared at the face, her face, for a long time before turning her gaze downward to the breasts that more than anything else announced that she was indeed a woman. They were large, quite large, and very firm. There was no denying them as they pressed against the thin fabric of the hospital gown she wore, her nipples clearly visible. Brandi set the mirror on the night stand and then tentatively poked at her right breast with her index finger.

Without preamble, or any apparent concern over modesty, Brandi pulled the loosely tied gown down and then grabbed both of her breasts experimentally.

“Wow, they sure are big,” she said, her voice filled with innocence and awe.

Brandi continued to examine these new additions, seemingly oblivious to the presence of Susan and the nurse. She seemed mesmerized by her breasts. They did not hang from her chest but rather projected, a good six inches, their weight pulling them down just enough to give them a pleasing, natural appearance. She lifted them and let them fall; she pressed them together and pulled them apart. Finally Susan could stand it no longer.

“Megan, would you step outside please,” she said to the nurse, who appeared only too happy to comply.

Turning back to Brandi she said, her voice pleading, “Brandi, please tell me what is going on inside your head! Are you still … I don’t even know how to say it ….”

“Am I still me?” Brandi asked, raising her eyebrows. She pulled the gown back up to cover her breasts and settled back against the pillow.

“I don’t really know if I can answer that. I mean, I know who I am, or was … dammit this is confusing! I remember my life but I do feel … different.”

“You feel like a woman,” Susan suggested.

“I guess … I don’t really have any basis for comparison, other than the fact that I don’t feel like I did as a guy,” Brandi admitted, and then she frowned. “Susan, how did this happen?”

“During the initial scan the machine detected markers in your genetic structure that triggered something called the Genomorph Protocol,” Susan explained. “It was buried and encrypted within the computer system, but we have been able to decipher some information about it. Apparently it was a military program, designed to produce a superior soldier.”

“This body, a superior soldier?” Brandi snorted. “What am I suppose to do, beat things to death with these huge boobs? And what the hell is a Genomorph?”

“The outer shell is superficial window dressing, or maybe camouflage is a better word,” Susan explained. “Genomorph is a translation of a word in the Forerunner’s language that had no parallel in ours. Geno for genome or genetic, and morph from metamorphosis, meaning to alter form or shape. The Genomorph Protocol radically altered your genetic structure.

“You remember that the Forerunners were fleeing their system after a devastating war? Well, their enemies, which were actually just another branch of their own race, were a completely male dominated society. Women were nothing more than objects for sex and reproduction. So the forerunners developed Genomorphs as operatives that would not be seen as a threat.”

“So why not just use a woman?”

“That’s where the genetic markers come in,” Susan told her. “For lack of a better description, we are calling those markers ‘warrior genes’. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that while most people use the terms warrior and soldier interchangeably, there is a difference. A lot of men, and women, can be taught to be good soldiers, but I’m sure you’ve heard it said that a true warrior is born that way. Well, it looks like that adage is true. The Forerunners identified those genes.”

“And those genes are only in men?” Brandi asked.

“No,” Susan replied. “They are rare in men and even rarer in women. Plus it involves more than one set of genes. The computer was looking for a specific combination of seven genes. Of course we have only identified a very small portion of the human genome. The Forerunners apparently had mapped it much more extensively, perhaps even completely.”

“So what exactly did it do to me?” Brandi asked. “I mean other than the obvious.”

Susan hesitated for a moment. She was not sure how much Brandi was ready to hear, and in truth they had no idea how much the Forerunner machine had modified her.

“Please just tell me the truth, Susan,” Brandi pleaded as she saw the hesitation on Susan’s face.

“Brandi, I promise you now that I will never, ever lie to you,” Susan said. “That doesn’t mean that I might not withhold information from you, if I feel you aren’t up to hearing it. I am responsible for what has happened here, and I am going to do everything in my power to help you get through this.

“As to what has been done to you, the truth is we don’t know the full extent. I can tell you that you are now completely female in every way. That means you have the brain and body chemistry of a woman, and you have a fully functional reproductive system and all that entails. You can get pregnant and will have to deal with a monthly period.

Brandi gasped slightly as Susan’s words soaked in.

“Your muscles, connective tissues and skeletal structure are considerably stronger than a typical human, stronger even than a person in peak physical condition. Your cellular structure is much more robust as well. Over time as cells divide and reproduce, the DNA within them becomes damaged. It’s kind of like making copies of a copy. Eventually the end product is unreadable. Your cells reproduce exactly every time, so far as we can tell, and we have some pretty sophisticated ways of analyzing them even over a short period of time. This will have many benefits; your rate of healing from injuries will be extremely fast, and I seriously doubt there is a disease out there, not even cancer, that could harm you. It also is likely that you will look just as you do now for a long, long time.”

“Are you saying I can’t die?” Brandi asked wide eyed. “That I’m immortal?”

“I’m saying you would be very hard to kill, and aging is not something that you will have to concern yourself with. You will remain at your present biological age of seventeen, but I can’t promise that it will be forever. We have found no data regarding the long term effects. Certainly you will live several human lifetimes.”

Even though what Susan said was technically true, she frankly doubted there was any limit to Brandi’s life span. She had studied her new genetic and cellular structure repeatedly over the last three days and every thing she saw indicated the young woman would never simply wear out over time.

“Seventeen?” Brandi echoed. “I thought I looked younger than I had been. A lot younger. That could make it kind of hard to function in the world. Everyone who sees me will think of me as a kid. I guess our trip to Vegas is off. I doubt I could get into a bar. ”

“Who said we had to go to a bar, or a casino? We could always spend a few days hitting all the malls,” Susan said, laughing as Brandi gave her a sour look. “Well, with that body I don’t think you will have much trouble. You look young, yes, but no one would question an ID that put you in your early twenties. And once you learn the art of makeup there are tricks you can use to make yourself appear more mature or even younger if you wanted.”

“I may feel like a girl but I’m not ready to surrender to being a girl just yet Susan,” Brandi said. “I don’t want to even think about things like makeup, or sex for that matter.”

As soon as she said the word Brandi realized she had been thinking about sex for some time in the back of her mind. To her shock, and horror, she realized she had been thinking about it with a sense of curiosity and anticipation. She felt her nipples hardening and could see them becoming more visible as they pressed against the fabric of the hospital gown. The very contact of the fabric against them began sending shivers of pleasure through her body.

“Oh shit.”

“Yes, you may not have much choice on that score,” Susan said somberly. “It appears that sex was as much a tool of these Genomorphs as combat skills. Your sex drive was increased significantly, likely to allow you to utilize it more effectively.”

“That is just fucking great!” Brandi shouted. “It’s bad enough that I get turned into a hyped-up female super soldier and now you tell me I’m a sex crazed bimbo, too!”

“I said nothing of the sort,” Susan shot back. “Your mental capacity has not been reduced in any way. In fact, your thought process is several orders of magnitude faster than normal. Your capacity to learn and adapt has also been increased. Yes, you will have to deal with an increased level of desire, but you have the capacity to deal with it.”

Susan paused to give Brandi time to absorb what she had learned so far. As she watched her, she could see that her nipples visibly softened beneath the gown.

“It could have been much worse,” she finally continued. “The Forerunner computer recognized that its data files were very old and began searching through the network connection to the internet for information on what contemporary society considers sensual. Most of the data it gathered came from pornographic web sites. Ryan was able to limit access to exclude the more extreme sites.”

“You’ll have to thank him for me,” Brandi said sullenly. “I guess that explains this body. If I saw boobs like this on a woman I would swear they were fake, but the pictures it accessed probably were of girls with implants.”

“They are real I assure you,” Susan said. “The machine made modifications to the musculature of your back and shoulders to accommodate them, though I suspect you’ll still want to wear a bra.”

“I don’t have a clue about stuff like that!” Brandi protested. “I wouldn’t even know what size I need.”

“We took your measurements while you were asleep,” Susan informed her. “Your measurements are 36G – 22 – 36. I’m afraid you won’t be buying bras off the rack. I took the liberty of ordering some for you, and they will be here tomorrow.”

“Gee, thanks,” Brandi said, rolling her eyes. “Something to look forward to.”

“I’m not saying any of this will be easy, Brandi, but you have to look at what you have gained as well. You are young and healthy and you have the full use of your body again. You are more physically capable than you were at even your best before you were wounded. It is going to be a long, hard process, but I will help you in every way possible.”

“There’s no way to undo it?”

“We already tried,” Susan told her. “The day after you were transformed we put you back in the machine. If it had the capability to alter you from a male to a female, we reasoned it had to be able to alter you back. We burned out the entire control system trying to override the security protocol.”

“The machine was destroyed?” Brandi asked wide eyed.

“No the machine still works. We can run scans, but the programming required to make repairs and alterations, including the Genomorph program, was largely destroyed. We are already working on reconstructing it, but it will take time...years, probably even decades, before we have the technological capabilities to restore that kind of function to the device.”

“For the foreseeable future, you are one of a kind.”